(BRUSSELS) - The foreign ministers of Slovenia, Sweden Poland and Lithuania plan to visit Georgia on Monday in an effort to try to cool tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow, an EU diplomat told AFP.

Slovenia's Dimitrij Rupel, whose country holds the EU's presidency, Sweden's Carl Bildt, Poland's Radoslaw Sikorski and Lithuania's Petras Vaitiekunas will meet in Vilnius on Sunday before leaving together for Tbilisi, the diplomat said.

A Swedish diplomat confirmed that Bildt planned to make the trip but declined to confirm the names of the other ministers and if it was a mission to mediate the conflict.

The Slovenia EU presidency was unable to confirm the information, but also did not deny it.

The initiative will mark the first attempt by senior EU officials to mediate in the growing crisis.

Tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow have mounted over the Georgian separatist region of Abkhazia, where Russia has stationed peacekeeping troops seen as giving backing to the separatists, and on the eve of a Soviet-style Red Square military parade.

Tensions reached a new height on Thursday as Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili warned of a risk of war with Russia

Georgia sees Moscow's moves as a riposte against NATO's leaders promise at a summit in April to accept the former Soviet republic into the military alliance in the future.

Tbilisi has dispatched a series of ministers to Brussels in recent weeks to NATO and the EU seeking support against Russia's moves.

Rupel has been due to visit Vilnius since a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the end of April in Luxembourg, when Lithuania blocked the start of important negotiations on a new strategic EU-Russia accord.

One of Lithuania's reasons for blocking the negotiations was Moscow's behaviour towards Georgia, seeking a tougher EU call on Russia to reduce the tensions.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.